Individuals in the market for a variety of products often utilize coupons which are redeemable for discounts on selected items. Coupons are generally offered by retailers, and particularly grocery stores and supermarkets, to offer discounts to shoppers possessing and presenting coupons at the time of making a purchase. Typically, coupons come in the form of paper products and include a description of the merchandise and a numerical denomination designated on the face of the coupon which is indicative of the discount provided for the specific item.
Over time, shoppers can experience great savings through the use of coupons. Indeed, many consumers accumulate hundreds and even thousands of coupons by removing them from printed media such as newspapers, magazines, packaging materials, brochures and advertisements received through the mail. The widespread use of coupons has lead to the need for products which assist in the organization and further assist in the storage and transportation of coupons which are typically collected and gathered at home and taken to the grocery stores and supermarkets.
Most prior art devices which are intended to assist the shopper in organizing and transposing coupons include structures incorporating inflexible components such as pivot pins, mounting structures, support structures, writing tablets and the like. Such prior art devices offer limited flexibility and therefore tend to be difficult to attach and detach from shopping carts. Worse yet, many of the known devices require multiple clamps or other fasteners to attach the device to a shopping cart.
Further, the known prior art devices offer limited accessibility to the coupons during the shopping experience. For example, many of the known prior art devices include a plurality of flaps or lids which need to be manipulated to gain access to the coupons. Each flap or lid typically includes one or more fasteners which must be released prior to manipulating the flaps or lids to gain access to the coupons. The flaps or lids often continue to cover at least a potion of the coupon containment area even after being manipulated thus limiting access to the coupons unless the flaps or lids are held out of the way by the shopper.
Yet another problem with many of the known prior art devices is the bulky nature of the device. Many of the known coupon retainers are too large to conveniently transport from home to the grocery store or supermarket. This is especially true if multiple locations are to be visited during a single shopping experience.
While numerous prior art devices are intended to assist the shopper in organizing and transporting coupons from the home to the grocery stores and supermarkets, none of the known devices truly are adapted to provide easy access to the coupons while shopping and ready closure, storage and transportation during periods of non-use.